Archive for the ‘Family Care Center’ Category

It is a custom in the Philippines that students have a graduation ceremony when they move from Kinder to Grade School. On a Friday in May, the children at the Family Care Center, held their yearly graduation. They had prepared a week to put the program together. The mothers and siblings had taken the morning off to see their child participate in the ceremony. While waiting for everyone to arrive, the children were busy preparing their hair and practicing their dance moves.

In the background is Nida, the teacher, together with the 4 Danish interns and Marie, who is the overseer of the Family Care Center. The children are excitedly waiting for the program to start so they can receive their rewards. To the right is Katherine Canillo from Norway, who lives in Cebu City together with her family and is a volunteer with Rise Above. Thank you Katherine.

These children have been chosen from very poor families, to be given a chance to study, and having had 2 years at the Rise Above Daycare center is an opportunity that is greatly appreciated by their parents. Without this opportunity, most of these children would never be able to go to school, because the parents can simply not affording the school materials and uniforms.

The teacher, Nida, giving the final instructions

At little past 10 am, the ceremony started with everyone singing the national anthem. This was then followed by dance numbers and singing by the children. The children, led by teacher Nida, were then called up by names and given rewards, in the form of ribbons, for best in math, arts, the most polite, helpful etc.

Some of the children entertained the others with dance and song

The children were awarded

Out of the sixteen children, there were six who graduated this year. There were five boys and one girl. When the children received their diploma, you could see that they were proud.

The graduates were given a diploma

The Danish interns had spent time shopping and cooking for the occasion, and there was plenty of food for everyone. Thank you to Anne-Sofie, Christina, Mathilde and Christina. (Yes, there are two of them with the same name 🙂 )

If you would like to sponsor a child’s education, please visit Rise Above’s homepage: www.riseabove-cebu.org for further information.

The bags made from rice sacks and animal feed sacks have become popular!

We make the bags in many different sizes from money purses to large beach bags.

The first bag-making work-shop was held in December 2009, and since then 8 women have made bags, and been able to make a little better life for themselves and their families. They have been able to sell them locally and many of the volunteers who come here from Denmark, have purchased them to bring back to Denmark as a gift for mothers and sweet-hearts. This period has taught us how to make the bags, and we will now pursue to create a cooperative.

Our desire is to help poor families get a better life, and that comes through being able to get a job and earn money to support their families. It has been hard for them to get jobs in the past, because all these mothers do not have an education – some of them have only a couple of years in elementary school. Some of them would only wash laundry, and maybe only once a week, and then many of them have 2-7 children, so we can see that this is not enough to even feed their children, much less to send them to school.

Joshua and Rochecar graduated from our Family Care Center, and they are now in 1st grade. They are sponsored for education.

Seeing the bag-making project take off, and help the families, gave us the faith to look for more mothers who could be trained, and we decided to give this opportunity to mothers of children who are getting sponsorship for education, and who are living close to our Family Care Center in Guadalupe, Cebu City. Another group of mothers we wanted to include, are mothers who are residing close to the new Rise Above Foundation Community Center, also in Guadalupe. 26 women signed up for the work-shop led by Rise Above and Fair Trade Cebu.

The women were taught step by step how to make a bag.

All the strips had to be cut, then folded, before the weaving could start.

Marie is assisting one of the mothers in how to go about starting to weave the bag.

Many found it easiest to work on the floor. It was so nice to see how they team-worked, even though many of them had never met before.

Everyone were happy to partake in the work-shop.

Finishing the bag - securing and hiding the end pieces.

Elisabet with Ester who has worked with handicraft production for 20 years and Dolly and Emily from Fair Trade Cebu.

The team at the end of the work-shop. Some of the women were still working, trying to finish up the bag they were making. 🙂

It is so exciting for us to see how our projects are expanding, making it possible for us to fulfill our mission: To improve the quality of life for poor Filipinos.

You who have read our blog, have read about Melisa’s desire to help our work here in Cebu, and offered to do a fundraising for a new roof for our Family Care Center. Though the fundraiser isn’t finished yet, we would like to post some incredible photos of Melisa.

MESLISA – HOW DID YOU FEEL RIGHT THERE? BUTTERFLIES?

WOW! THIS IS REALLY RISING ABOVE!

FLYING HIGH!

WHO TOOK THE PHOTOS?

WE ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO HEARING YOUR STORY!

YEA, WE CAN SEE IT’S DUBAI.

HOW LONG TIME DID THE JUMP LAST?

WELL DONE! CONGRATULATIONS MELISA – AND MAY THIS YEAR BE A SUPER ONE FOR YOU! YOU STARTED WITH A SKY-DIVE – WE WONDER WHAT IT WILL END LIKE?

Let’s all cheer for Melisa.

And thank you for getting your friends, family and colleagues inspired to help toward building a new roof at our Family Care Center!

If anyone else is interested in donating toward the new roof, PLEASE USE OUR PAYPAL ACCOUNT and send us a mail to info@RiseAbove-Cebu.org so that we can acknowledge you for your gift…

THIS IS THE SLOGAN FOR MELISA AND HER TEAM IN DUBAI HELPING RISE ABOVE FOUNDATION CEBU RAISE MONEY FOR A NEW ROOF FOR THE “FAMILY CARE CENTER”.

TARGET: To raise US$ 2775 to build a new roof to replace the one seen below. The roof will be raised above the roof shown to the right of the photo (so there will be a flow of air), and will be build in iron trusses, roof sheets and isolation material to protect from the heat. The size of the roof is apprx. 50 m2 –

THE STORY:

Melisa visited us here in Cebu 2 years ago, and came with us to the Women’s Prison where she was able to participate in the program, singing a song to encourage these women. Now that Melisa’s birthday is coming up, she contacted us and asked if it was ok to do a fundraiser for our foundation, and what would be the most imminent need at present. As you can see from the photo – the greatest need is THE ROOF!

On March 1st, we moved our Family Care Center to a new location. After an intensive house-hunting we came upon a building that used to be a small school. The building was in a sad state of disrepair since the former renters when leaving in the middle of the night, had even dismantled walls and brought the materials with them.

This is how it looked like when we moved in

We painted the Family Care Center in bright blue and yellow and now it portrays a happy and cheerful place (except the sight of the roof)

BEFORE - the "School-room"

AFTER - These children come from very poor homes, so they really enjoy the bright and clean play area

The class room is spacious with lots of room for new books and toys!

It's hard to describe how the kitchen looked, but it was obvious that a new one had to be build

The kitchen as it looks today. We are still doing the final touches - and we will paint the walls white, but it's a wonderful feeling to enter a kitchen that's easy to clean

Rise Above Foundation Cebu is a non profit NGO whose aim is to improve the quality of life for poor Filipino families. You can read more about out programs on www.RiseAbove-Cebu.org or check out all the stories here on our blog.

We are excited about the “SKY-DIVE FOR RISE ABOVE” and we are looking forward to the stories, photos and donations.

You can donate on Paypal, and it would be helpful if you would send us a mail to info@RiseAbove-Cebu.org with info of your donation, so that we can communicate back to Melisa.

These are the 30 Korean students with their coordinator, Uzzel, and with Jenny, Gabe, Marie and Einar

It is so nice to see people from different walks of life, working together for one purpose – to help the needy and expand the works for the betterment of others.

Last Saturday, May 7, 2011, 30 Korean students visited the Family Care Center (FCC) to do a community service. These Korean students are taking a course in English Language Literacy at the Cebu Doctor’s University and part of this course is to mingle with local people. Uzzel, the coordinator of the English Language Orientation Program, found the website of the Rise Above Foundation and became interested in helping the foundation on one of the projects that it is working on. They coordinated with Marie and on Saturday they have agreed to come and see what they could help with at the Family Care Center since the inauguration and the graduation of the students in the FCC would already be on the coming Saturday, May 14, 2011.

They enjoyed scrubbing and cleaning the walls of the Family Care Center. What a beautiful sight!

The Koreans arrived and first listened to an orientation by Elisabet Hansen. She explained about the foundation’s work in Cebu City and thanked them for wanting to volunteer. Afterwards, Marie together with Uzzel devided out the different areas of the Family Care Center that they could help clean. They rolled up their jeans and sleeves, picked up the brushes and started scrubbing the walls of the FCC. Some of the boys turned their attention to the fans and toys. They washed and cleaned them all. Some of them went into scrubbing the floor mats and rubber mats. All the works that should’ve been finished in a week was done all in one day. We were so thankful for their initiative!

Washing the toys for the kids in the Family Care Center. Looks like they're having fun.

They were cleaning the rubber mats that are used to protect the children in the center in case they fall on the floor accidentally.

After scrubbing and cleaning everything, the Koreans went out for lunch together while the children from the Family Care Center and the sponsored kids for education from the area gathered together at the center. While waiting for the Koreans to be back, Marie and Elisabet distributed the clothes that some people from England had donated. They also had found the foundation while surfing the internet and brought clothes that their grandchildren had grown out of, but still in good condition to the Philippines. Marie sent them an email of thanks, and they said that this was the first time someone had thanked them for helping by bringing clothes to poor countries.

Marie gave these pink pants to this young girl. A couple from England donated these clothes.

When the Koreans came back, they brought a lot of goodies and snacks for the children and they played with them. They grouped the kids and assigned at least two students in each group. They talked, played, some kids cried but most of them enjoyed playing with the Korean students. The Koreans also facilitated fun games for the children and at the end of the day, bade good-bye to the happy children and mothers of the Family Care Center.

The kids and the Korean students listen to the facilitator as she gives the instruction on this game.

These boys are having a fun time together as they talk and play with the children in their group.

It seems like these kids are enjoying their new rides! The Korean spent some more time with the kids after the games.

You don’t need to have a lot of money to be able to help. Out of anything you have, you can help. You only need a willing heart to be able to help and make a difference in some people’s lives. Contact us at info@riseabove-cebu.org or call us at +63 32 255 1063.

These are the children sponsored by the Rise Above Foundation together with their mothers, Elisabet and Marie.

Together we can make a difference!

Susanne Mae De La Cruz is an intern with Rise Above from the University of the Philippines